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Saturday, 25 February 2012

More on government's recent announcement for expression of interest from private companies for Chalk River Labs

More on the government's recent announcement for expression of interest from private companies for Chalk River Labs: http://www.thedailyobserver.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?archive=true&e=3469085
"“This process will allow the government to benefit from the
experiences of organizations, domestic or international, involved in the
management or restructuring of nuclear science and technology or
radioactive waste management,” read a statement posted on the National
Resources’ website. “The information gathered through this process
will help inform the restructuring process, a critical step to further
strengthen Canada’s nuclear industry while reducing taxpayers’ exposure
to financial risks in this sector.” Gordon Tapp, president of the
Chalk River Technicians and Technologists, said this is a fishing
expedition, and a possible prelude to the privatization of AECL and
Chalk River labs. “They (the government) are trying to see who is
interested and the range of the interest” in the company, he said. “They
are trying to look at all the options available to them.” The goal is to not necessarily sell AECL outright, but to eventually have the private sector take over running the operation.
“The federal government doesn’t want to be in that business, and
haven’t been overly supportive of R and D in general,” Mr. Tapp said.
“They would like to see someone else come in and invest in it.” He
said what is driving this is the government’s determination to shed
costs anyway they can, due to the worsening economy and government
deficit, coupled with the philosophy there are a lot of things the
private sector should be doing that the Crown is doing using tax
dollars. What he is concerned about is if there is insufficient
interest shown from the industry for what AECL has to offer, there have
been indications the government may scale back or even shut down the
active parts of the site. “We could see Chalk River reduced to just a
waste management and decommissioning site,” Mr. Tapp said, as it
decommissions facilities and deals with a wide variety of buried and
stored radioactive waste left on site. AECL has been having a rough
go of it over the years, facing criticism for the millions of dollars
spent on the company, an investment with its critics claim has little to
show for it. The cancelation of the MAPLE 1 and 2 reactor project,
the extended shutdown of the 55 year old National Research Universal
reactor due to heavy water leakage and the bumpy ride of the next
generation of CANDUs, the ACR 1000, which has stalled due to a lack of
sales and high costs, together hurt the company at the worst possible
time. "

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Welcome to the Future of Neutron Scattering in Canada
a grassroots, nonpartisan movement of ordinary Canadians
that emerged in response to the lack of commitment by federal government(s) to build a new research reactor in Canada for nearly 2 decades.